


Tattered Memory

by Cear_IK



Series: Skeletails [4]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Sans has a tail, reset
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 06:09:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10299341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cear_IK/pseuds/Cear_IK
Summary: Companion fic to "Tattered Collar".The reset was hell for Sans, but what happened to Fell? What happens when the reset happens, and Fell's memories don't go with him on the other side of it?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hope this stands up to expectations and the standard of Fresh's writing! Most of this was written between 1 and 3am, so hopefully it isn't too bad. 
> 
> I did have this all typed out and ready to post about two hours ago... and then I had to restart my computer because it would NOT connect to the internet or allow my to fix it. And of COURSE it didn't save my final draft. I have the rough draft written out by hand, so all I have to do is type it up... but that version of the final draft is lost forever.

He woke up quietly as was his wont. He didn't stir much, either, staying still so as not to disturb his lazybones lover. His lover... His senses, kept keen in the service of protecting said lover, told him there was no one else in the room. Fell's eyes shot open. This wasn't... This was  _his_ bedroom. Each dent and scrape in the walls were familiar, the window boarded up as a matter of course, and his bed obviously the finest he could make it... It was  _his_ bedroom, so why did that familiarity fill him with dread? Why did his soul cry out at how utterly  _wrong_ this was? In his unsettlement, his soul reached for something- no, some _one_ important, someone who should exist  _here_ _,_ where he could keep an eye on them, someone with whom he shared a bond... And paralyzing terror overtook him when his magic found absolutely  _nothing_ where there should be a familiar soul.

That was how Red found him an hour after he should have burst yelling into Red's room: sitting on the edge of his bed, skull in hands, magic  _straining_ as it tried to find someone  ~~so very important~~ who simply didn't exist in his universe. His skull snapped up at the sound of his door being forcibly opened (Red had been scared to dust when he didn't show), but he didn't even have the heart to berate his older brother like he normally would have. Instead, he watched his brother's expression turn from panic to astonished consternation.

"b-Boss?" Fell's eyes narrowed. He always prided himself at his skill at deducing other's thoughts and motives from small actions or words, and his brother was easiest of all to read.

"You know something..." The look of shock, then apprehension on the smaller skeleton's face confirmed it. "Tell me... Tell me brother,  _what am I **missing**?!"_ Red took one look at the confused, almost painful look on Fell's face and sighed.

"Your life," he simply stated. Fell's eyes narrowed once more as he felt the  ~~old~~ familiar rage welling beneath his fracturing self-control.

"Start at the beginning," he snarled.

* * *

An hour later he was standing in a  ~~familiar~~ room that he was sure he'd never been in before, staring at a half-broken metal cylinder that his brother had just revealed from under a tarp. It looked... like a useless hunk of metal barely large enough to fit him.

"So you're telling me that this...  _machine_ will be able to take me to my missing half?"

"It has before, it will again, Boss. Y'just gotta follow the script."

"Fuck the script."

"Follow the script or don't go at all, Boss, your choice." Fell snarled, magic roiling with barely suppressed emotions. Somewhere, a part of him was surprised: he hadn't lost his control this badly since he had gained the skull crack and his older brother lost that tooth. It was a very distant part of him, though. After a solid minute of snarling and pacing, he recognized that he was forced to comply.

"Fine," he snapped. "I will follow the script. Now let's GO." Red's eyelights shifted nervously and Fell saw sweat bead on the other's skull. "...What" he growled.

"... I kinda hafta fix it first." Fell felt his last scrap of control snap. He grabbed his insufferable brother by the front of his jacket and all but threw the other into the wall, pinning him there. 

 **"THEN FIX. IT."** He roared. Surprisingly, Red relaxed (having realized that if Fell hadn't hurt him now, with his unbridled negative emotions and unstably agitated magic, he never would). 

"I can't do anything pinned to the wall, bro." With another snarl, Fell dropped him and went back to wildly pacing. It was a surprise for him when Red stepped in front of him, forcibly stopping him in his tracks.

"Here Boss. This is yours." Fell took the  ~~familiar~~ collar, staring at the black leather and red fur. Something clinked gently against his phalanges, and he found a cyan metal tag. He didn't read what it said- he didn't have to. He felt like the words were inscribed on his very soul, and his magic, already present in the collar, practically screamed them. This collar... It seemed to summon half-forgotten memories, feelings more than anything, that calmed his agitated magic and focused his mind wonderfully. This collar... It was meant for his lover, who with neither him nor the collar, would be afraid and hurting.

... If fixing that meant playing by Red's rules and following the so-called thrice-bedamned script, then so be it. He focused on that, pulling and tugging at the half-forgotten memories-that-never-were while his brother tinkered with the  ~~metal cylinder~~ machine. That collar belonged on one neck alone, and Fell was determined to put it there.

"And... There, all fixed. Time to go." Fell was more than ready to enter the  ~~new~~ other universe- even if he had to wait in the basement until Red came and got him, it was still one step closer to his lover.

* * *

Fell observed his brother closely from the doorway Red had left him at, watching for any sign of movement. Red had promised Fell to help him find the monster that the collar belonged on, and despite leaving him in the basement for an extended stay, seemed to be holding his end of the deal up nicely. At first glance, it appeared that the Hall was vacant, but Red looked like he was talking to someone. Fell turned the collar over and over in his hands as he watched. There was a promise, inherent in the collar's very existence, and he intended to uphold that promise. The quality of the leather and the softness of the fur would have told him how much he  ~~had~~ cared for this person- except he already knew that. He was missing his other half, and he intended to collect. 

Sharp eyelights watched Red disappear into one of his shortcuts, Fell nearly sighing in relief as the predetermined signal to approach finally came. Fell couldn't stop himself from power-walking over, purpose in every step, image be damned. He stopped a few feet away from where Red had stood, hands naturally falling into place on his hips out of habit, and glanced around. His eyes narrowed as they fell on a familiar -  _very_ familiar - skeleton. He knew this short skeleton who looked like his brother and had a tail. Half-remembered memories of the two of them in the bedroom, in the kitchen, under the stars, in Waterfall - everywhere, really - swept through his brain, and he felt a flash of rage as the smaller flinched, drawing Fell's attention to the bare vertebrae of the other's neck. The pieces matched, and Fell strode forward to put them back together.

It took the smaller cowering beneath him to bring Fell back to his senses. Rather, to rid Fell of his misplaced anger, because his senses were still a befuddled mess centering around the object of his... love? The other had closed his eyes, so Fell took a moment to look down at the collar in his hands, the collar that belonged on this monster's neck, the neck that belonged in this collar. The two pieces matched... so Fell put the pieces together, the two halves making a whole, and  _the_ promise sprang unbidden from his mouth as the memories reassembled in his mind. 

“I told you, Sans. You will _always_ belong to me. And I will _always_ be there for you. Even if the demon of a child resets, I will not allow myself to forget the monster I love.”

The walls of his soul melted as Sans looked up at him crying, and he had to force himself to wait for the other's permission when all he wanted to do was scoop Sans up and snuggle away the tears. Thankfully, Sans lifted his arms and Fell wasted not a second in scooping him up and enveloping them in his love, his support, his magic. Image be damned, pride be damned, this was  _Sans,_ his love, his mate, his Precious Burden... And nothing was more important to Fell than him.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If this seems familiar to you... Yes, I did mimic Fresh's fic "Tattered Collar", because this is a companion fic that is meant to run parallel to her fic time-wise. No, I do not know how Red got the collar. I was expecting it to turn up on Fell's nightstand, but it didn't... Maybe it teleported into Red's workshop and he found it there. Normally I hate unexplained plot bunnies like this, but this one exists, so I guess I have to get over it. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> As always, please Rate and Review!  
> Comments supply Determination!  
> Critiques and Criticism are appreciated!  
> And if you find any grammatical or spelling mistakes, please tell me because they bug me to dust AND I ALWAYS FIND THEM!!


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